Ch.88Chapter 14. Accident (3)

“A con artist couple?”

When Yuka reacted to Kaoru’s words, Kaoru nodded and handed us a magazine.

[The fate of a con artist couple with no conscience. Revenge or divine punishment?]

Reading that headline, I thought it was probably closer to divine punishment.

No, technically it wasn’t divine punishment. They just happened to live there, and that place happened to catch the yokai’s attention. So strictly speaking, it was a coincidence.

Just like how getting a parking ticket because you illegally parked once and enforcement happened to be nearby could be called a “coincidence.”

“Senior, do you really believe what these magazines say?”

“It’s not about believing them, but their prediction accuracy is pretty good.”

Kaoru said, puffing out her chest.

“Isn’t it just a few lucky guesses…?”

“They’re journalists who’ll do anything for a story.”

In other words, they abandoned the minimum standards that journalists should uphold long ago.

Well, judging by how they show information about the deceased without any filtering, that seems about right.

I’ve heard that Japanese media generally cares less about such things. Even on the news, they sometimes show people’s faces so openly that it makes you wonder if it’s appropriate.

Though I’m not sure if this magazine can even be called journalism.

“Senior, no matter what, you shouldn’t use words like ‘divine punishment’ when talking about accidents.”

Yuka sighed lightly as she handed the magazine back to Kaoru.

“No matter what kind of life someone lived, death deserves a certain respect.”

Perhaps because of Yuka’s profession, her words sounded quite convincing.

To Yuka, who slays yokai, all humans are beings that must be protected.

Within that framework, she has no right to distinguish between “humans who deserve protection” and “humans who don’t.”

As long as we’re human, we can’t completely exclude emotions. If we start categorizing humans, we might eventually commit “indirect murder.”

Saving people first and letting government agencies handle the rest—that’s probably the best Yuka can do.

That’s probably why Yuka didn’t kill the cannibalistic murderer I found last time.

“I wasn’t saying they deserved to die either.”

Kaoru replied with a pouty expression. She looked just like a child.

“But it’s interesting, isn’t it? This is related to the magazine too. The informant was one of the fraud victims.”

“…That makes it sound even further from the ‘occult’ to me.”

A school bully dies in a drunk driving accident, a murderer dies of pancreatic cancer, con artists die in a fire… These are all things that could happen to anyone, and they just happened to people who had harmed others in the past.

So to ordinary people, they would just look like coincidental deaths.

But to the victims, it’s different. In their eyes, it would look like divine punishment. That’s what they would want to believe.

“Kotone?”

Koko, who had eaten half of her castella cake, called out to me.

…I must have been making a very serious expression.

Koko, who had been staring at me while holding half of her castella, handed that piece to me.

“Here.”

“…”

Is she worried about me?

I silently accepted the castella and took a bite.

It was soft and delicious. I wonder if it’s from the school store?

“That’s from a specialty shop in the neighborhood. How is it? Delicious, right?”

Kaoru asked with a smile, as if she had been waiting for me to try it.

Don’t tell me she bought new bait because I wasn’t reacting enough to the school store bread?

“…”

I guess I’ll have to keep taking this bait. I thought as I ate the bread.

*

Afterward, we spent a rather quiet afternoon as usual.

The Literature Club does maintain its identity as a literature club—or actually, maybe it’s because there’s nothing else to do.

The “mobile processors” of this era are all expensive. Even in the 2020s, laptops weren’t exactly cheap, but thanks to the dramatic increase in portable device performance in just 20 years, even entry-level mobile devices are sufficient for watching videos and playing light games.

If that were the case here, the atmosphere might have been quite different. Everyone might have been fixated on their smartphones.

“Woo.”

…Or maybe not?

Come to think of it, I couldn’t easily imagine Koko just staring at a smartphone. She didn’t seem very interested even when I turned on the TV at home, and with books, she usually preferred me reading to her.

“Since Koko seems bored too, shall we call it a day?”

Izumi said with a relaxed expression as she closed her book.

All we did was read books though.

“…Oh, by the way.”

And then Yuka suddenly asked Izumi something, as if she had just remembered it.

“Does the Literature Club not have any activities besides reading books? We should do something for the cultural festival…”

“…”

Kaoru and Izumi’s gazes fixed on Yuka.

“Ah.”

“That ‘ah’ doesn’t sound good.”

When Izumi let out a sound like a scatterbrained club president from a light novel, Yuka asked incredulously.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. We still have plenty of time. It’s the cultural festival, so we still have 3 months left, right?”

Kaoru said.

To be precise, it’s 2 and a half months, or maybe even less.

“By then, we can just write something and bind it together. The student council will let it slide if we just pretend to be active.”

“…”

“And if the Literature Club gets disbanded, that’s when I step in. You all should be thinking about joining the Occult Club!”

“Kaoru!”

In the end, today’s Literature Club activities concluded with Izumi shouting at Kaoru’s final remark.

*

A few days later, on Friday.

While having Koko stay with me was a welcome development, it created one problem.

It completely blocked my ability to act alone when investigating something.

Koko understood when I went out to work and came back, but if I tried to leave for any other reason, she would get up and try to follow me.

Even though I wanted to tell her not to, I couldn’t find a good reason. When Koko looked at me with those round, shining eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her to wait at home.

Have I always been this soft-hearted?

…

I’m not sure. Before coming to this world, I had been living alone for so long that I lost the will to evaluate myself objectively.

In the end, what I chose was—

“…Yuka.”

“Yes?”

Since everyone in class knew I had a part-time job, I was able to skip practice today.

Of course, Koko came with me.

If we left school after practicing until late afternoon, the sun would completely set during the hour-long subway ride back to Saitama.

And since I had only recently taught Koko how to take the bus, she probably felt more comfortable walking home than taking the bus.

Taking the bus made her worry about missing her stop, and walking made me worry she might experience something similar to what I went through.

I had told Koko that while she shouldn’t harm people, she could protect herself when necessary, but how she would judge those “necessary moments” was another matter.

…No, this story doesn’t really matter right now.

It’s probably just self-justification for what I was about to say to Yuka.

“Can I come over today?”

“Today?”

Yuka, who had been walking home with me, stopped and opened her eyes wide.

Koko’s reaction was similar when she understood what I said.

Had Koko never been to Yuka’s place before?

Koko had enjoyed the previous training camp 100%, and she had enjoyed the beach trip too before that incident happened. She had perfectly learned that “going out to play” meant doing something fun.

I felt somewhat guilty looking at Koko, who was staring at me with sparkling eyes.

And I felt even more guilty looking at Yuka, who was also staring with sparkling eyes.

“Aren’t you going to work today?”

“…Yeah.”

I answered in a slightly smaller voice.

“Ah.”

The intelligent Yuka seemed to immediately understand why I had said such a thing to her.

Of course, it was probably far from my “true feelings.”

“I see.”

Her gaze turned to Koko. She probably thought I was worried about “Koko taking the long way home.”

“Alright. I’ll go back with Koko and bring Kuro to my house. My grandfather seems to miss Kuro sometimes anyway. He’s bought lots of snacks too.”

“…”

Um, no.

“We’ll have dinner when you get back. I’ll prepare something delicious.”

“You don’t have to—”

“Koko, what would you like for dinner?”

“Meat!”

“Then let’s have meat!”

“Wow!”

…

My heart ached.

The part responsible for conscience should be in the head, so I’m not sure why my chest hurts so much.

“…Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.”

Yuka responded to my apology with a smile that suggested she really didn’t mind, which made me feel even more embarrassed.

“We’re supposed to help each other when needed, right? Don’t worry about it too much.”

“…”

I nodded silently.

No matter how I think about it, I’m not sure if I can ever repay all this debt.

And if I think about the prophecy—

—No, I’ll think about that later.

First, I need to deal with what’s in front of me.

“Thank you, really.”

Yuka smiled brightly at me as I said that.

It was truly a beautiful smile that made me think she was the main heroine of a light novel.

*

After finishing work, I asked Shii for understanding and quickly headed toward Yuka’s shrine.

In my hand was an occult magazine I had bought at a convenience store, the same kind that Kaoru reads. The magazine cover was a bit explicit for an occult magazine, which made me a bit uncomfortable when buying it, but fortunately, the clerk calculated the money without even looking at my face, with a bored expression.

The article in the occult magazine didn’t “explicitly” mention the address, but it did provide ridiculous information like what was around the area or which restaurant’s food was delicious, so it didn’t take long to find the place.

…This magazine seems to be one that creates “occult holy sites” and provides information about them. When I asked Kaoru before, she said it was also famous for repeating the same stories.

This incident too would probably be featured repeatedly in the magazine whenever they remembered it.

Well, that doesn’t matter.

Rather, I’m glad there’s such a useful magazine. Thanks to it, I have clues to solve the case.

“…”

As I was walking, I stopped in my tracks at a certain smell.

Obviously, the fire had been extinguished long ago. But the distinctive burnt smell doesn’t easily go away.

Until the fire is extinguished and the house is thoroughly cleaned, that terrible smell continues to linger in the area.

Moreover, when fire trucks respond to a fire, they spray an enormous amount of water on the site, and that water pools on the ground. If the cause of the fire isn’t found, it takes even longer to demolish the place.

…And they said the family living there died.

I looked at the occult magazine.

It says the bodies were almost completely burned, leaving hardly any traces. That’s why the occult magazine also included a small speculation in the corner that “maybe the couple started the fire and ran away.”

The reason they concluded it was a family death was that some remains were found inside. The possibility of that was considered “extremely low.”

The residential area had the alley itself blocked off. I could roughly see the fire site when I got near the police line, but it seemed impossible to check inside.

Could I use Yuka’s position?

After thinking briefly, I shook my head.

That’s not possible.

The position of yokai hunter is not known to ordinary people. Given that there’s a separate agency handling that side, it didn’t seem likely that the police guarding the area would make way for us.

But I did have a method in mind.

I carefully circled the area, making sure not to be noticed by people around.

What I found was a public restroom in a nearby park.

The location wasn’t great. It looked unclean, as if it wasn’t properly maintained. But it was an excellent place to secretly cut my wrist.

I entered one of the stalls in the women’s restroom and rolled up my left sleeve as high as possible.

Then I put on the raincoat I had bought at the convenience store and tied a rubber band around the back of my wrist. I didn’t expect it to completely prevent blood from getting in, but it would be better than just letting it flow freely.

After making sure there were no other places around my body where blood might stain, I took out a knife from my bag and placed it against my wrist.

As the knife tip touched the thin skin, that area already stung coolly.

…This was truly a sensation that’s hard to get used to, no matter how many times I experience it.

I gritted my teeth and stabbed the knife in.

And feeling a burning pain, I cut sideways.

Red blood flowed from my wrist, soaking the tattoo underneath. At a glance, it looked like a tattoo inked in black, but as soon as the blood touched it, a red light dyed along the lines, drawing a picture.

“Ugh…!”

And then, the wound drawn in the center of the magic circle opened up and down.

Like a red eye appearing on my wrist.

And that eye looked straight at me.

“It’s strange every time I see it.”

Without any greeting, that was what Shubgurass said to me.

“Strange?”

“I can’t help but find it strange that you don’t just pass by these things, but instead dive into them after seeing only fragments of incidents.”

“…”

“I’m curious where you got the hunch about this incident?”

“…Do I have to tell you?”

At my question, a small laugh sounded in my ear.

“Your reactions always pique my interest. Yes, you don’t need to answer. I enjoy solving puzzles.”

Was that so?

…Well, this is an emotion that humans have too. Observing ants crawling on the ground intently and wondering where they’re going, and checking the ant colony they move around in—these stem from curiosity that any intelligent being can feel.

And creating art by pouring molten aluminum into an ant colony as a mold probably also starts from curiosity.

“So, I’m curious what you want this time.”

“I want to observe a place without being noticed by others.”

“You want to go to that burned place.”

So you were watching everything.

“It would be better if you could just tell me about it.”

“Didn’t I tell you? I enjoy solving puzzles. I’m curious how I would solve the puzzle without using your movements as hints.”

There must be a way to open my mind too.

Thinking of several reasons why he doesn’t do that, perhaps the difference between me and Shubgurass is too vast for him to properly read my thoughts even if he opened my head. Just like how we can’t understand an ant’s thinking even if we crack open its head.

And perhaps it’s just seen as “looking at the answer key.” Either way, it was beneficial for me. That’s why Shubgurass continues to take interest in me.

“I do have a method in mind.”

“…Then let’s go with that.”

“The price this time is—”

Shubgurass suddenly cut off his words midway.

Seeing that his body wasn’t moving, he hadn’t left my side yet. Rather, he seemed to be deep in thought.

“—I don’t think I need one.”

“What?”

I couldn’t help but ask at Shubgurass’s words.

“As I said. I don’t intend to take a price.”

“Why?”

“How about thinking of it as a puzzle?”

“…”

I thought for a moment.

While Shubgurass has always demanded prices from me that were somewhat troublesome, thinking about it, there were times when our thoughts “aligned” if the price stimulated his interest.

Like when I went to hear Kudan’s prophecy.

“What do you think? Do you want help?”

“…Yes.”

If that’s the case, there’s no reason to refuse.

In the end, I’ll get hurt and injured, but settling with that is better than having things go in a direction I can’t anticipate.

I heard laughter in my ear.

“You always make such choices.”

It was a bit annoying that he said that as if he had read my thoughts, but it wasn’t just because he had actually read my thoughts.

Rather, it was probably because he had predicted the future in his own way.

So at least I won’t die.

“Just do it without the chatter.”

At my annoyed words, Shubgurass made a slight snorting sound.

And then.

My vision went dark.

No, that wasn’t it.

I was lying on the floor.

…

No. It wasn’t my body that had fallen.

“Kyuu?”

When I opened my mouth, that sound came out. It felt like my vocal cords had been replaced with something else. Even if I wanted to speak human language, it wouldn’t come out properly, and only that sound emerged.

“…”

Ah, this.

Looking around, I saw the shoes that students wear at our school. They were shoes with not very high heels.

Looking up, I saw a high school girl wearing a raincoat.

With a bleeding hand hanging down.

Me.

“…”

I understand why Shubgurass liked this.

If I left my “body” in this state for too long, something quite interesting would happen.

I tried to cover my forehead with my hand, only to realize I didn’t have hands.

This was an extremely strange feeling.

But it’s useful.

“Kyuu kyuu.”

Hearing my muttering replaced with mouse language, I tried to sigh, only to realize for the first time that mice don’t have lungs.

…Let’s just finish this quickly.